NY Gay Marriage Fight Gets Ugly; Long Night Ahead

Gay marriage supporters and opponents rally in the hallway at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., Thursday, June 23, 2011. Republican Senate leader Dean Skelos of Nassau County says his members will consider a gay marriage bill in closed-door session, a possible step toward a full vote. The measure has pushed New York to the center of the national gay marriage debate and appears to be one vote shy of passage if it gets to the floor. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)

Gay marriage supporters and opponents rally in the hallway at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., Thursday, June 23, 2011. Republican Senate leader Dean Skelos of Nassau County says his members will consider a gay marriage bill in closed-door session, a possible step toward a full vote. The measure has pushed New York to the center of the national gay marriage debate and appears to be one vote shy of passage if it gets to the floor. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)

The fight over legalizing gay marriage in New York is getting ugly online as the Republican Senate plans to finally consider the bill in closed-door conference Thursday.

A top ranking Republican, Sen. Thomas Libous of Binghamton, said late Thursday afternoon that he expected the Senate to be at the capitol until at least midnight taking up several other measures, none so closely watched as the effort to make New York the sixth state where gay marriage is legal.

Meanwhile, the leader of the state Senate, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and at least one other lawmaker say they have been besieged by offensive posts, forcing them to curtail comments.

Dolan has blogged that he loves gay people who want to get married but still ardently opposes gay marriage. The church says Dolan’s been one of the targets of cyber abuse and vulgarities prompted the banning of some commenters on the Catholic church’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos, who opposes gay marriage, has also closed down the comments on his Facebook page after supporters used vulgarities and posted the home addresses of senators opposed to gay marriage.

Democratic Sen. Diane Savino of Staten Island, who supports gay marriage, says she also had had an onslaught of offensive postings by opponents of same-sex marriage.

The question in New York is viewed as a pivotal moment in the national gay rights movement. Skelos said his Republican caucus will meet behind closed doors Thursday to decide whether to send it to the floor or kill it. Several amendments are being proposed to better protect religious groups from discrimination lawsuits and to entice Republican senators, most of whom oppose gay marriage, to send the bill for a full vote advocates think they will win.

“It’s up to the conference to bring it out (for a full Senate vote),” Skelos said Thursday after meeting with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “I expect it’s going to be a lengthy conference, a thoughtful conference.”

The anxiety level appeared to rise on both sides as negotiations dragged toward the end of a second week. It was most keenly observed online.

One post used a vulgarity to disparage the Virgin Mary, among other web posts and emails that prompted the New York State Conference of Bishops to ban from its Facebook page some users who accuse Dolan and the church of bigotry. More than a dozen have been banned, said Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference.

“Our unofficial Facebook policy is not to automatically delete comments that disagree with us, but when the comments come into untruths or uncharitable, then we have to delete them,” Poust said. “And when it really becomes abusive we have to ban them.”

“The tension has really reached a fever pitch for some people. … I’m sure there are certain unstable members of both sides who are prone to excess,” Poust said.

The Senate’s Republican majority, which is the key to whether same-sex marriage will be passed or killed in New York, stopped allowing posts to Skelos’ Facebook page this week.

“The vast majority of the comments were fine,” said Skelos spokesman Scott Reif. “Some had gotten increasingly over the top.”

The conference is still accepting comments through email and phone calls.

“There were some pretty disgusting things,” said Savino, who noted the vitriol was greater than 2009 when a Democrat-led Senate defeated an almost identical bill. She said the worst commenters appear to have stopped.

“If you are opposed, I respect that,” she said. “What I can’t tolerate is people using abusive or homophobic behavior aimed at me or my staff.”

In the capitol building where supporters and opponents have peacefully coexisted since last week, singing hymns like “This Little Light of Mine,” or “Amazing Grace,” the mood was turning more anxious, too.

“The tension is always high because you have people yelling at you back and forth,” Tonja Alvis, a gay marriage supporter from Albany, said Thursday. “It’s like a rally at a football game.”

But the two opposing groups, kept segregated by state troopers, largely stayed on opposite sides of the hallways. Though there were bursts of tension all week, including chants of “Get your hate out of our state” by gay marriage supporters Wednesday night, advocates reported no major conflicts early Thursday.

“A little calmer than some days,” said Keith Mills of Esperance, N.Y., who held a hand-written sign reading “We are Christians and we vote. No gay marriage.”

Dozens of gay couples were planning to converge on the capitol to witness what would be a historic vote to legalize gay marriage in New York, the sixth state to do so and a potential bellwether in the national gay rights movement. But for that to happen, Cuomo’s considerable political skills will be tested as never before to engineer one of the biggest social changes in a generation.

The Democrat has been using a kind of shuttle diplomacy to privately test proposals for additional religious exceptions within the Senate’s Republican majority. He’s talked to individual senators or small groups of lawmakers privately, breaking down barriers and letting them take his message to others in the Republican caucus.

The proposed protections are aimed at saving religious groups from discrimination lawsuits if they refuse to recognize gay marriage based on their principles.

“Will the conference allow a vote to be taken, that’s the threshold,” Cuomo said Wednesday evening. “I’m pro-marriage equality, I’m also pro-First Amendment, I’m pro-church-state separation and I’m pro-religious freedom. So I also have the same concern.”

Even if Republicans agree to the religious exemptions, that’s no guarantee the bill will pass.

Two Republicans clearly undecided are Sen. Stephen Saland, of the Hudson Valley, one of the Senate’s most veteran and respected members, and Sen. Mark Grisanti, of Buffalo, a freshman who is part of the GOP youth movement voted into office in the 2010 Republican tide nationwide.

Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage. Of them, all but Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., allow at least limited religious exemptions.

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